There has been some good feedback from the other bloggers about the "teaser" copy reaching nusance levels, so I thought I'd create this topic where we can discuss how to best direct traffic to new posts on our Adopt-a-Seahawk! (AAS) pages without cluttering up the front page.
Here's what I recommend:
1. a short catchy title
2. hot link that title to your sub-page using the Link field
3. no more than 4-5 lines of copy with your "teaser" post (i.e. lenghth of paragraph above)
4. if you include a picture, it should be no more than 1.5 inches square (about the size of the graphic above)
5. feel free to also hot link the picture, and/or include a text link too.
I think if we all adhere to a set of simple guidelines, the site won't start looking like a NASCAR Taurus, and we'll be able to easily alert our fellow bloggers when there's new content on the AAS pages.
Now, please use the Comments section of this post to either agree, disagree, or add suggestions for better/different guildelines. As a true community site, everyone's input is valid, and we'll end up with a better collective product if everyone weighs in.
What do you think?
Bringing in the conversation from Flooble:
ReplyDeleteI agree we gotta keep this as "rule free" as possible, but once the draft is over and the season draws near, we'll probably have half-dozen more AAS sites (hopefully) so we should get a handle on this before it gets out of hand
And actually too, with the increased number of topics we're keeping on the front page, they should be smaller in lenght, so as not to overwhelm the visitor, or bury an item too deep on the front page.
I think we need to take a page out of Newspaper editing (pun intended!) and put enough content on the front page to get the reader interested, and then pop them inside for the rest of the story, be it on an AAS page, or the 12SS-Page2 page.
Now that's an interesting idea, sort of like the main site would be on page two, in a sense, as well as all the other sites which would be inside page one, which is just used to draw interest. SO the front page would be like a bunch of listings of articles, and then subdivisions for the adopt sites?
ReplyDeleteI think that's what you're saying, or something to that effect?
Sounds good.
ReplyDeleteFirst impressions are important. People make their mind up pretty quick if this is a place they want to poke around in. If what they see on the surface (The main page) is full of things that are not important to them, they will assume the same is true about the rest of the site.
So all I'm saying is that if you have an urge to post something that will be on the main page, but it will be somewhat meager in actual content, take a look at what's already posted. If there is a bunch of the same type of stuff already up, do you part in keeping a balance. Save it as a draft and post it tomorrow. Or follow Alba's recommendation (which is a good one!) and keep it small and leading to a page 2 or another place.
Really, most of all have fun. All of us are doing this for our own enjoyment. It's fun to make something that other people want to come and see. The best way to do it is with a team effort- Not putting ourselves or our own agenda above the blog's.
Yeesh! I hate giving soap box hooey!
One question about using page 2-- do you think that some computer-challlenged contributors will get the hang of it? It's definitely not as easy as scrolling.
ReplyDeleteIt also puts burps in the visitor navigation. Suppose and the end they want to comment? To change the style to a newspaper-like style with throw away the thread-like feel that lends itself to conversation.
GOod point about the Commenting.
ReplyDeleteMonkey and I have been actually shutting off the main page commenting feature on our "teaser" copies, forcing the visitor to comment on our sub-pages.
This works good for AAS pages, since the comments get emailed to blog owner.
However, it won't work well for very long main blog posts. I don't think we want people's comments going on teh Page2 site, and it would be a challenge to link back to the main blog page for comments at the end of a Page2 piece.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the biggest complaint was with the huge pictures Monkey and I have posted on our last couple of teasers, with very little, if any, content.
It kind of gives the impression of a "Free Plasma TV" pop up that makes you click through before realizing that there's no chance in hell you're ever gonna get one.
I think if we limit the size of the graphic, and include some relavent content, it will handle the problem pretty well.
Monkey clued me in that if you have a big graphic, you can resize it right within Blogger by going to the Compose view and then clicking and dragging the anchor points of the graphic.
We could also specify default pixel dimentions in the standard [img src...] code, but that will distort rectangular pictures.
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ReplyDeleteYou know what? You're right. Just bringing the issue up was probably plenty enough.
ReplyDeleteJust to make sure you know, I really appreciate everything you guys do to make this blog what it is. I know I've do a few things to doll-up the joint, but I've always thought of the blog as a jar of pickles.
When someone wants to buy pickles it has to be in a jar. Anything the vendor can do to make the jar appealing is a plus, but the buyer is really buying the pickles.
What I've done with this site is just dress up the jar. You guys have been steadily bringing in the 'pickles', that is, awesome content that on the average, 250 people a day want to see. They wouldn't keep coming if it wasn't crisp and fresh, no matter how pretty the jar is.
Dammit, I'm soap boxing again!
Anyway, I'm sure that this molehill that was turned into a mountain is way past solved.
Thanks guys.